306 replies to this topic

[CheetoLord02]

Update 11/1

As of last night the colony took in less clovers than normal for their usual feeding. Not a concerningly low amount, but I made sure to take note of it. Today I offered some mesquite instead for variety, and they took it with a decent response. When I had originally offered mesquite a week or so ago, they ignored it, so this is a nice development. 
 

 

 

Another cool development is that the largest worker yet just eclosed today. She's not all that much bigger than the previous biggest, but it's still noticeable. 
 

 

 

One cool thing too is that while the fungus has mostly stopped its insanely fast expansion, and is now assuming a more normal growth rate, it's now growing more in a different kind of way. Instead of shooting straight up, it's now thickening out, in a few ways. It's spreading outwards slightly, although most new growths still are on the top. However it is getting denser. Now that the fungus can contain all brood inside, and is a good enough volume to support the colony, it is now growing more and more dense. You can see the bottom of the fungus is now a nice fluffy white, as it is now "mature" and not brand new growths. Soon enough most of the fungus will look like this, aside from what is currently being fed/growing. This is just what happens when basically the entire garden is less than 2 weeks old.

 

[ZTYguy]

So cool, I can't wait for my leafcutters to arrive

Edited by ZTYguy, November 1 2020 - 6:32 PM.

[Ants_Dakota]

ahhh! makes me want atta so bad! guess i will have to be content with the colonies i have around my own place, as antdrew would say.

[KitsAntVa]

I'm hoping I find trachymyrmex next year if not antkid and me were talking and he said he planned on going to va beach to find queen so i may trade him for one.

[Antkeeper01]

ahhh! makes me want atta so bad! guess i will have to be content with the colonies i have around my own place, as antdrew would say.

you have fungus growers?

[Ants_Dakota]

 

ahhh! makes me want atta so bad! guess i will have to be content with the colonies i have around my own place, as antdrew would say.

you have fungus growers?

 

no we don't. i was just lamenting that i could not have one, and then concluding that i had better be content with what i had.

[CheetoLord02]

Update 11/9

Been too long! Since last update the fungus has, yet again, grown quite a lot. The garden is now over 2 inches tall at the highest point! They're also starting to accept pretty much any food I throw at them and not just clovers. Tonight flower petals were on the menu.
 

 

 

Another new development is now there's brood basically throughout the fungus. I haven't particularly noticed an increase in worker numbers, but I'm sure they'll start blowing up in population soon enough.

 

 

 

They've also opened up a hole basically straight through the middle of the garden. I assume it's just gotten too big that going all the way around is too much work. 
 

 

 

The queen is desperately trying to find a permanent perch within the garden. So far there's a decent crevasse forming in the middle, but it's not quite enough to fit her colossal self. Won't stop her from trying, though!
 

[KitsAntVa]

Cheeto doesn't fail to amaze me with his ants, or his profile pictures.

[Kaelwizard]

It kind of looks like a honeycomb, or wasp nest now. It'd be interesting if there was some bee or wasp species that grew fungus like that. So will a large chamber eventually be made for the queen or does she just chill outside of it?

Edited by Kaelwizard, November 9 2020 - 7:06 AM.

[Ants_Dakota]

amazing developments! l literally need to stop reading this journal, or i might go and steal some!

[CheetoLord02]

It kind of looks like a honeycomb, or wasp nest now. It'd be interesting if there was some bee or wasp species that grew fungus like that. So will a large chamber eventually be made for the queen or does she just chill outside of it?

I think it kind of depends. She'll always have a little pocket made for her, but sometimes it's completely surrounded in fungus and sometimes it'll be against the side of the nest chamber she's in. Typically in captivity it's not against a wall, since our nest chambers we make for them are clear and let light in. While fungus growers usually don't care about light, they'll still normally cover up their queen completely when they get the chance.

[CheetoLord02]

Update 11/14

Seeing my Atta everyday sort of numbs me to the amount that they really grow, but looking back here on my journal for each update is crazy! Even since last update they've grown significantly, and I hardly noticed! I only decided to make an update today because I noticed that they had decided to store a ton of their brood in a big mass on the more exposed side of the fungus. Take a look!
 

 

Even in fungus growers big piles of brood are super satisfying.

 

 

Another cool thing is that the queen was finally able to perch herself on top of the fungus.... and she did so upside down. Sometimes you've gotta wonder what's going on inside a queen ant's head.   
 

 

Queen upside down fo today

The last update here is that the fungus has now grown to actually be touching one of the sides of the container they're in. I guess the garden needed some extra support, as they've really only been growing it upwards and not outwards.
 

Edited by CheetoLord02, November 14 2020 - 1:19 AM.

[CheetoLord02]

Update 11/16

Today I decided to open up the lid of the setup for some extra time than normal, typically I only do so to hydrate the plaster before quickly shutting it again to prevent escapees, but unfortunately the sides of the containers (except one) are scuffed to the point where getting good pics is really difficult. So instead I decided to shoot this video! It's still hard to get an idea of how large the fungus really is, but compared to the earlier entries in this journal you can tell it's seriously large.




After opening the lid the queen desperately tried to bury herself in the fungus, with workers quickly rushing to protect her from the apparent threat. The way they protect their queen is so awesome, I've only seen it done better by Neivamyrmex out of all the species I've kept.
 

 

 

Also while having the lid open I decided to experiment. Since these guys are basically only growing their fungus upwards, I decided to relocate a small piece to a different part of the container to see if they'd grow a secondary garden, and hopefully eventually combine the two to give the fungus as a whole a much larger footprint. If it works, I may do it again with another piece later.
 

[mmcguffi]

What a great journal! Thanks for your detailed updates (and taking a video!) and your great husbandry

[KitsAntVa]

This is not defined by husbandry it is defined by chonkytrees because queen be big chonk

[Antkeeper01]

I'm so jelly

[MinigunL5]

I'm so jelly

Aren't we all?

[Swirlysnowflake]

This is not defined by husbandry it is defined by chonkytrees because queen be big chonk

chonk

big chonk

[CheetoLord02]

Update 11/23

So a couple interesting things have happened since last update. The first being that the colony is getting... large. I'd estimate they've got at least 250 workers now. Unfortunately, despite being vegetarians, they're also very aggressive. So much so that I pretty much can't open the lid anymore. I did so to water the setup and proceeded to have several dozen angry Atta charge to the top, biting me and preventing me from putting the lid back on. It was... an ordeal. So now, to solve this, I'm feeding them like crazy so that they'll need a new nest sooner, and when I make it I'll be sure to design it in a way where I can hydrate it without having to open the lid at all. 




On another note, 2ish days ago I was talking with some friends on Discord, and they told me that apparently Atta will eat orange peels. Well, I have an orange tree in my backyard, so to me this was amazing news... if it was true. I decided to test it out and well, I can't exactly speak for the peel... but the Atta seemed to like the fruit itself!
 

 

 

They would cut up the individual... fibers? Whatever the meat of the orange is... and drink the juices before mincing it and putting it on the fungus. A bit to my surprise, the fungus seems to have no problem digesting it, and so far pretty much all of the meat from that slice is now gone. It's clearly not their favorite food, but the fact that they'll take it is awesome considering I have access to it straight from my backyard.

As for the fungus itself, it's getting hard to notice growth each day, but as soon as I come back here I realize it's still going really strong! It's currently 2.5" wide, 2.5" tall, and around 1.25" deep. It's hard to tell in photos but it really has gotten seriously large! It's to the point where it's larger than it was when it was shipped to me. The fact that they were completely able to recover and surpass their previous size in only a month is totally awesome!
 

 

 

So far the experiments where I split off small pieces of fungus have proved... uninteresting. They do feed the smaller groups of fungus, but they don't really grow them. It's clear all of the focus is still on the main mass of fungus. Of course, they only have around half an inch of vertical space left before hitting the top of the container, so hopefully once they reach the lid that they'll really start working on growing it outwards.




Seeing fresh green plant material speckled across the fungus is still my absolute favorite. I will never get sick of it.
 

Edited by CheetoLord02, November 23 2020 - 12:33 AM.

[ANTdrew]

So awesome, dude.